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GOP leadership is attending these sessions, and has become increasingly alarmed at how many lawmakers in the meeting think the party has a messaging problem, not a policy problem.

“I really believe it’s not the message, it’s the ideas,” Lankford said. “But the way we present the ideas, we do it too blunt. And so many conservatives I’m around, we just state the fact, figures and numbers and say, ‘Doesn’t this make sense?’ And people say, ‘How does that affect my life?’”

Conservatives privately are griping at a party that seems to be shifting to the center. Many are happy with their party’s conservative lean, and don’t see a need for course correction. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said what’s plaguing the party is “a registration and turnout problem.”

“What we have is a broad message out of Leader Cantor, and that sends a message out there that we’re broadening the party,” King told POLITICO. “And I’m going to presume that was in the aftermath of this election, and they’re looking at how they do better with a broader appeal. They want to take some of the sharp edges off. That’s a piece of it. Does it change policy and principles? We’ll have to see. That’s part of what goes on inside. When they move some of those things, if they compromise our principles, conservatives will stand up, and I’ll be one of them.”

Then there’s the budget. House Republicans have centered their messaging around the Senate’s unwillingness to pass a budget, claiming it renders them fiscally irresponsible. But moderates are privately fretting about their 2014 budget, which Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Speaker John Boehner say will balance within 10 years.

Some of these concerns are beginning to spill into the open.

“We are saying a 10-year balance — that’s tougher than the last Ryan budget,” said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), a former Budget Committee member and currently an Appropriations cardinal. “There could be a significant number of Republicans that say, ‘I’m not going there because it would be too dramatic.’ I have said to my constituents, nobody is talking about changing Social Security and Medicare if you’re 55 years or over.’ I’ve been selling it for three or four years that way. So have many other members. Well, to balance in 10, that 55 years is going to move up to 58, 59, 60. It makes us look like we’re going back on what we were telling people when we were trying to sell this.”